Cultural Passport 2019
KES students learn about South Korea!
Destination: South Korea
As always, the students will experience South Korea in all their related arts classes this month as well as a couple of special snack times and our ever-popular Taste-it Tuesdays, Korean style!
We have a special addition to our activities this year in which students got to learn about Taekwondo on Opening Day with Grandmaster Park.
Music
We will listen to a very well-known Korean folk song called "Arirang" (ah-ray-wrong) which is from the Kangwon province. The guitar students will also be learning to play this song on their instruments. We will listen to traditional wind instruments(danso), string instruments(kayageum), and the percussion instruments(jang go and buk).
In terms of contemporary Korean music, we will be listening to and watching a performance of BTS, one of the K Pop groups.
Much to look forward to throughout the month of January!
Physical Education
Celebrate the differences and see all the similarities!
Can you believe it?! We are playing Baseball in January! Baseball is the most popular sport in South Korea with Taekwondo being the national sport of South Korea. There are many other popular sports such as basketball, golf and rugby.
We have also played games such as Jegi (a Korean Hacky Sack game), Dakssaum ( a Korean balance game), Gonggi ( a Korean game similar to Jacks).
The most popular dance we will be doing is the Buchae Chum Dance (A Korean Fan Dance). This will be a fun dance for all our the students to perform. Salpuri is the South Korean scarf dance. The Nongak Dance (A Farmer's Dance) is performed with drums and ribbon wands. We will look forward to our performance on our final night of celebration. You won't want to miss this one!
Art Rocks in South Korea from Creating Blue Dragons to Han Gul Calligraphy!
STEM
In 3rd grade, we began our exploration of South Korea using small programmable robots called Ozobots. These robots read color codes and perform various actions when they encounter different codes along a "path" students create. Students researched tourist destinations in South Korea, plotted them on a map, and then created an Ozobot path on their map complete with codes for their Ozobot to follow. Third graders are now learning how to use Google slides as they create a Mystery Slide presentation for a South Korean destination of their choice. Mrs. Eastwood facilitated the research for these destinations in library and students learned the basics of how to use Google slides in STEM lab. Students will continue their work on their slides in both library and STEM lab in hopes taht they will get some good exposure to Google slides as well as to the beautiful places in South Korea.
In 4th and 5th grade, students are using Chrome Music Lab's program called Song Maker to compose their version of a song they are working on with Mrs. Vallone. This song is calledBehd Noreh. This program uses color coded boxes to represent musical notes. After students notate Behd Noreh using Song maker, they will add their own personal touches through instrument selection and percussion choices. This is such a great connection between music and technology!
Library
Students will also be exploring some language, geography, finding special features, places, and landmarks of the country, as well as learning about the culture, current events, and festivals. We will practice asking questions and finding answers to our questions about South Korea. Many of the older students will be using Britannica online and FactCite to gather information about South Korea as well as using other sources you can find in the library or on my resources page! I encourage you to use these resources from home as well. Some of this reasearch will show up in a slide presentation or a kahoot quiz as our students are learning about various tools that can showcase learning.